Being transparent with customers shows others that you are there to help. Sometimes you may need to obtain details privately, for example the customers address or contact details, but answering any concerns publicly helps shows that you're there for your customers and the answer you give may answer the query someone else was about to ask.

Take advantage of Facebook apps. You'll find these at the top right hand side of your Facebook page. We have a 'report a repair' app which allows customers to report a repair. Customers don't need to leave our Facebook page and be directed somewhere else; they can carry this out on one page. We also have a bedroom tax calculator app where customers can see whether they will be affected by the latest changes to welfare reforms.

Update Facebook every day and make sure that what you post is relevant, interesting, timely and entertaining. We also make sure we get back to people as soon as we can and be honest that we won't be able to do this at the weekend.

We try and be useful and occasionally funny. We also try and act as a signpost for useful information, services and things going on in the community. We have tried to avoid any cringy attempts to jump on social media trends.

I may be the chief executive but I run my own page. Facebook puts a personal face to the organisation and to a certain extent makes me directly accountable. It also gives me the chance to sound out new ideas and test the water on things we are doing. I get a good deal of job satisfaction from the interaction and engagement (it's lonely in the ivory tower sometimes).

Embrace the negatives. Some landlords try to control what is posted on Facebook but for us we would rather know if someone is unhappy. You can bet they will be posting the fact on their Facebook page so we would rather they do it on ours where we have a chance to respond. Quite often we can turn a negative into a positive.

We find that photos get a lot of likes and comments. After all, it is social media so there needs to be a social element to what we do.

A social media strategy is important but don't overdo it. It's not a top-down process and, to an extent, you have to see how it develops and adapt as it does so.

The most engagement we get from Facebook users is when people want an issue sorted. Or to thank us for getting a quick question answered for them. The main attraction for our residents has to be Facebook as a customer service tool.

Facebook will need to be managed properly in real time no difference to answering the telephone. There is a skill to writing effectively on Facebook, not just anyone can do it. So selecting the right people is important.

Interactive is the key word: This isn't about giving out messages and hoping people will like. You should create environments where residents can chat, meet and set up virtual residents associations. Your organisation could establish continuous improvement groups that reviewed the use and comments of residents using the service.

Facebook should be used as an engagement tool for meaningful two-way conversations. Not just a one-way promotion channel.

You can't force conversations online. Far better to engage people in ways that are familiar with them and join in their conversations. People need somewhere to register complaints and compliments. If you don't provide it, they will create their own, or use spaces you set up for other purposes.

Organisations can't control the message any more – and should cease trying to. Engaging in the conversation is much more effective. The corporate fear is that the conversation will be negative, but experience so far indicates that folks are perfectly reasonable and perfectly polite. We've only had a very few occasions where we felt we were treated unfairly – and other residents actually waded in to keep the peace.

Context is all. Relatively few of the people who interact with us will be navigating directly to the Facebook page; they'll be seeing a post in their news feed.

How to attract Likes: We've decided not to go down the route of paid advertising. We're promoting the page through a range of our own materials, from email footers through to the quarterly customer magazine.

The communications team shouldn't be approving posts before they're published. Trust your staff in the relevant teams to manage social media, and give them the support, guidance and training they need.